John P. McCown was born Aug. 19, 1815, in Sevierville, Tenn. An 1840 graduate of West Point, he served in the Mexican and Seminole wars before resigning from the U.S. Army on May 17, 1861. He then joined the Confederate army and rose to the rank of major general. He served in Missouri and Tennessee, leading a division that included an Arkansas brigade at Stone's River. After the war he moved to Magnolia, and after his death Jan. 22, 1879, he was buried in City Cemetery; his brother G.W. McCown, a C.S. veteran, also lies there.